Hello!Today I'm going to share a fun community project I got the opportunity to illustrate. A few months ago, my friend and fellow designer, Jinger, approached me with the challenge of beautifying the shared newsletter of two of Madison's public schools. Her daughter, who is Stella's age, currently attends one of the schools, and, being a visual person, she noticed the newsletter was looking a little bland. Since Stella will be going to Kindergarten at one of the said schools next year, she thought perhaps I would be interested in freshening up the newsletter.Of course I would! I'm always up for a little beautification project! Jinger had a couple fun ideas incorporating the two schools' mascots - a falcon and a raccoon. I came up with some sketches based on her thoughts:

We decided to try combining some of the elements, focusing on the framed mascots holding a banner:

Thinking the composition was a little busy, we simplified it a bit:

Nice! Now it was time to add some color. There weren't any official school colors as far as we could tell, so my first attempt was a little more subdued. I wanted it to appeal to both boys and girls.

But it just didn't feel right. I tried again, this time letting go of any restraints and focusing on fun:

Yes! SO much better. Jinger liked this one as well, so this was the header that was presented to the school. It was a hit! And after chatting with some parents about the new look, it seems like it may inspire some new initiatives to help integrate more art into school correspondence. This is a cause I will definitely support! Until next time,